Józef Walaszczyk

Józef Władysław Walaszczyk (13 November 1919 – 20 June 2022) was a Polish leatherworker and businessman who was declared Righteous Among the Nations in 2002 for sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.

He has been described as a "second Schindler" or "Polish Schindler".

Walaszczyk was born in Częstochowa into an affluent intelligentsia family.

His mother was a feldsher and father a journalist.

In 1927, after his father died during a visit to the United States, the family's financial situation worsened.

His mother decided to move from Warsaw to Rylsk where their cousin, Ludwik Okęcki, owned an estate and a potato flour factory.

Walaszczyk continued his education in Częstochowa, Aleksandrów Kujawski, Łowicz, and Piotrków Trybunalski.

Before the outbreak of the war, he had passed the junior high school graduation examination and was studying at the senior high school of commerce in Warsaw.

He was living in a studio apartment at 34 Krucza Street.

He worked in trade, with enough success to lead a quite affluent lifestyle.

At that time he had some Jewish acquaintances.

He spent his holidays in Rylsk, where Okęcki was teaching him to run the estate.

In 1938, he joined the National Party which he quickly quit because of its antisemitism.

In June 1939, Walaszczyk was taking part in the military preparatory course near Lidzbark Warmiński.

After the Germans invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, he was mobilised and sent to Brześć, Eastern Poland.

When the Soviet Union attacked Poland on 17 September 1939, Walaszczyk and his cousin, who also was sent there, decided to return to Rylsk instead of going to the Romanian Bridgehead, which was their initial idea.

Despite difficulties (Józef was arrested for a couple of days by Germans), they reached Rylsk at the end of September.

In December 1939, thanks to his knowledge of German language, Walaszczyk was appointed manager of the factory and as administrator of the whole estate in Rylsk.

He was employing around 200 workers including his family, friends, and others in the community (including Jews), providing them with food and accommodation.

In 1940 or spring 1941, Walaszczyk fell in love with Irena Front (styling herself Bartczak).

She did not tell him she was Jewish until the Gestapo burst into their Warsaw hotel room.

Walaszczyk helped Front hide behind a wardrobe and pretended to have stomach problems in the bathroom outside the room.

The Germans departed, being assured by the hotel owner that he was a frequent and well known client.

Following that incident, Front lived in Walaszczyk's flat on Krucza Street.

They arranged a fake wedding so she could be put on the non-Jewish Volksliste.

Most probably in 1941, one of his friends made before 1939, Wengrow, asked him to employ forty Jews from the ghetto in Rawa Mazowiecka.

Walaszczyk agreed as he owed him a favour.

He got permission from Miller, head of the local Arbeitsamt (labour office), convincing him with a large bribe to get 30 Jews.

Walaszczyk needed to bring another installment of the bribe every two weeks.

Hired Jews had a good enough situation to take care of themselves, so Walaszczyk did not need to feed them.

However, after a dozen months, Miller withdrew his permission.

Walaszczyk advised his workers to hide if the Germans appeared.

When he was on his way to the Arbeitsamt, German officers appeared at the estate with trucks.

A couple of Jews who had not hidden, were arrested and transported to the ghetto in Łódź.

The rest hid and survived.

At the end of October 1941, Front was detained with a group of 20 Jewish acquaintances.

Walaszczyk, informed about the situation, came to Warsaw.

At the police station, where the Home Army had its agent, he was informed that all 21 Jews would be released if he brought the Germans a kilogram of gold (2.2 lb) within 5 hours.

The Germans refused to release only Front.

Walaszczyk managed to collect and pay the bribe, saving all 21 people.